Eric Zaslow is an American mathematical physicist at Northwestern University.
Eric Zaslow is an American mathematical physicist at Northwestern University.
Zaslow attended Harvard University, earning his Ph.D. in physics in 1995, [1] with thesis "Kinks, twists, and folds : exploring the geometric musculature of quantum field theory" written under the direction of Cumrun Vafa. [2] His research focuses on mathematical questions arising from duality symmetries in theoretical physics such as mirror symmetry. With Andrew Strominger and Shing-Tung Yau, he formulated the SYZ conjecture. [3]
He was named to the 2021 class of fellows of the American Mathematical Society "for contributions to mathematical physics and mirror symmetry". [4]
Zaslow is also known for being internationally ranked in ultimate, with seven world or national championships [1] and has written limericks about physics competitively. [5]
In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and interact with each other. On distance scales larger than the string scale, a string looks just like an ordinary particle, with its mass, charge, and other properties determined by the vibrational state of the string. In string theory, one of the many vibrational states of the string corresponds to the graviton, a quantum mechanical particle that carries the gravitational force. Thus, string theory is a theory of quantum gravity.
Edward Witten is an American mathematical and theoretical physicist. He is a professor emeritus in the school of natural sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Witten is a researcher in string theory, quantum gravity, supersymmetric quantum field theories, and other areas of mathematical physics. Witten's work has also significantly impacted pure mathematics. In 1990, he became the first physicist to be awarded a Fields Medal by the International Mathematical Union, for his mathematical insights in physics, such as his 1981 proof of the positive energy theorem in general relativity, and his interpretation of the Jones invariants of knots as Feynman integrals. He is considered the practical founder of M-theory.
In algebraic and differential geometry, a Calabi–Yau manifold, also known as a Calabi–Yau space, is a particular type of manifold which has properties, such as Ricci flatness, yielding applications in theoretical physics. Particularly in superstring theory, the extra dimensions of spacetime are sometimes conjectured to take the form of a 6-dimensional Calabi–Yau manifold, which led to the idea of mirror symmetry. Their name was coined by Candelas et al. (1985), after Eugenio Calabi who first conjectured that such surfaces might exist, and Shing-Tung Yau who proved the Calabi conjecture.
Shing-Tung Yau is a Chinese-American mathematician. He is the director of the Yau Mathematical Sciences Center at Tsinghua University and Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. Until 2022 he was the William Caspar Graustein Professor of Mathematics at Harvard, at which point he moved to Tsinghua.
In theoretical physics, T-duality is an equivalence of two physical theories, which may be either quantum field theories or string theories. In the simplest example of this relationship, one of the theories describes strings propagating in a spacetime shaped like a circle of some radius , while the other theory describes strings propagating on a spacetime shaped like a circle of radius proportional to . The idea of T-duality was first noted by Bala Sathiapalan in an obscure paper in 1987. The two T-dual theories are equivalent in the sense that all observable quantities in one description are identified with quantities in the dual description. For example, momentum in one description takes discrete values and is equal to the number of times the string winds around the circle in the dual description.
In algebraic geometry and theoretical physics, mirror symmetry is a relationship between geometric objects called Calabi–Yau manifolds. The term refers to a situation where two Calabi–Yau manifolds look very different geometrically but are nevertheless equivalent when employed as extra dimensions of string theory.
Cumrun Vafa is an Iranian-American theoretical physicist and the Hollis Professor of Mathematicks and Natural Philosophy at Harvard University.
Andrew Eben Strominger is an American theoretical physicist who is the director of Harvard's Center for the Fundamental Laws of Nature. He has made significant contributions to quantum gravity and string theory. These include his work on Calabi–Yau compactification and topology change in string theory, and on the stringy origin of black hole entropy. He is a senior fellow at the Society of Fellows, and is the Gwill E. York Professor of Physics.
The SYZ conjecture is an attempt to understand the mirror symmetry conjecture, an issue in theoretical physics and mathematics. The original conjecture was proposed in a paper by Strominger, Yau, and Zaslow, entitled "Mirror Symmetry is T-duality".
Robert "Bob" Osserman was an American mathematician who worked in geometry. He is specially remembered for his work on the theory of minimal surfaces.
Noriko Yui is a professor of mathematics at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.
Kefeng Liu, is a Chinese-American mathematician who is known for his contributions to geometric analysis, particularly the geometry, topology and analysis of moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces and Calabi–Yau manifolds. He is a professor of mathematics at University of California, Los Angeles, as well as the executive director of the Center of Mathematical Sciences at Zhejiang University. He is best known for his collaboration with Bong Lian and Shing-Tung Yau in which they establish some enumerative geometry conjectures motivated by mirror symmetry.
In string theory and related theories, a brane is a physical object that generalizes the notion of a zero-dimensional point particle, a one-dimensional string, or a two-dimensional membrane to higher-dimensional objects. Branes are dynamical objects which can propagate through spacetime according to the rules of quantum mechanics. They have mass and can have other attributes such as charge.
Richard Paul Winsley Thomas is a British mathematician working in several areas of geometry. He is a professor at Imperial College London. He studies moduli problems in algebraic geometry, and ‘mirror symmetry’—a phenomenon in pure mathematics predicted by string theory in theoretical physics.
Ailana Margaret Fraser is a Canadian mathematician and professor of mathematics at the University of British Columbia. She is known for her work in geometric analysis and the theory of minimal surfaces. Her research is particularly focused on extremal eigenvalue problems and sharp eigenvalue estimates for surfaces, min-max minimal surface theory, free boundary minimal surfaces, and positive isotropic curvature.
Philip Candelas, is a British physicist and mathematician. After 20 years at the University of Texas at Austin, he served as Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford until 2020 and is a Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford.
Mu-Tao Wang is a Taiwanese mathematician and current Professor of Mathematics at Columbia University.
Mark William Gross is an American mathematician, specializing in differential geometry, algebraic geometry, and mirror symmetry.
Xenia de la Ossa Osegueda is a theoretical physicist whose research focuses on mathematical structures that arise in string theory. She is a professor at Oxford's Mathematical Institute.
Chiang Ti Ming was a Malaysian Chinese particle physicist and child prodigy. He was the youngest student to be admitted to the California Institute of Technology.
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